Jim Fassel yesterday brought a shovel into the locker room prior to the game and requested that all his players sign it, hoping that a symbolic reminder of his “Keep Shoveling” battle cry would provide an inspiration.

There are plenty of Giants fans today who would like to tell Fassel where to put that shovel.

Oh, the Giants did plenty of digging, but rather than escape the hole they put themselves in this season, they all but buried themselves with a show of ineptitude that defied imagination. They have endured bad losses, but not like this.

Diving head-first into the trap that Fassel acknowledged his team must avoid, the Giants embarked on the second half of their season and likely dealt their playoff hopes a fatal blow with a humiliating 27-7 loss to the Falcons, who came into Giants Stadium lugging in a seven-game losing streak.

Afterward, a fairly irate Fassel laid into his team, saying he was embarrassed. “That was probably, in a lot of aspects, as poor a performance as I have had a team play,” Fassel said. “It starts with me. They looked like they were ready to play. Fooled themselves and fooled me.”

This was the 200th career victory for Dan Reeves, the former Giants coach whose club came in at 1-7. Yet the Falcons dominated the Giants, who fell to 4-5 (and 1-4 at home) as their modest two-game winning streak came to a screeching halt.

With 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the Giants trailing 20-7, a brief but clearly audible chant of “Fire Fassel” echoed through Giants Stadium, no doubt filtering up and into the ears of the team’s ownership.

“It’s not on him, it’s on us,” linebacker Micheal Barrow said. “We’re to blame for the record.”

Veteran players rallied to Fassel’s defense, but what does it mean when Fassel, when asked if his team played hard for him, said, “I can’t say that today.”

There was no argument from the Giants who lingered in a silent locker room.

“That should hit everybody,” defensive end Michael Strahan said. “It hits me right in the gut. [Fassel’s] right. Playing like we did today, if you’re not embarrassed you shouldn’t be here. I’m embarrassed for us, I’m embarrassed for the freaking fans, I’m embarrassed for anybody sitting home and watching. Freaking horrible. Horrible.”

Making things even worse, it looks as if the Giants will have to play next week in Philadelphia without tight end Jeremy Shockey (sprained knee) and cornerback Ralph Brown (dislocated shoulder).

Kerry Collins tossed two interceptions. Tiki Barber ran for 120 yards, but lost two more fumbles – on the Atlanta 22 and five-yard lines, respectively. The porous Giants defense allowed Warrick Dunn to zig and zag for 178 of the Falcons’ 216 rushing yards. Amani Toomer dropped a pass on the Falcons five-yard line. Four of the five offensive linemen were flagged for penalties.

“From the very first snap we played like we weren’t ready to play and it only got worse as the day went on,” Barber said.

Tied 7-7 at halftime, the Giants were out-scored 20-0 in the second half.

“There’s no reason we couldn’t come back and win that game,” center Chris Bober said. “I’m not saying we gave up, but it didn’t seem like we had very much of a will to win.”

The Giants, for goodness sakes, lost to Kurt Kittner, Atlanta’s No. 3 quarterback, who threw for a mere 65 yards.

The worst moments? Barber’s second fumble, ending all hope with 10:34 remaining, followed closely by Collins, with the Giants already in field-goal range, throwing to Tim Carter in double coverage and getting picked off in the end zone by cornerback Bryan Scott 11 seconds before halftime.

“I’m embarrassed the way I played,” Collins said.

He wasn’t alone.

“We did not do anything,” Strahan said. “I can’t think of one positive thing we did. Not one. And that’s sad. We did nothing.”